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History

Spider-Man, a new hero and broke teenager, decides to put his powers to use and attempt to join the Fantastic Four for pay and adventure. He makes his way to the Baxter Building and breaks in to display his abilities[1], only to be trapped in a glass container by the Fantastic Four. He breaks out and asks to join but is turned down due to his bad reputation with the Daily Bugle and because the Fantastic are government funded, and non-profit organization. On Earth-772, Spidey joined anyway, reluctantly telling the four his true identity.

As the Fantastic Five, the team starts out well, stopping the Vulture's crime spree, forcing the Chameleon into hiding, and winning the Space Race for the United States. They find the Red Ghost, his Super-Apes, and Uatu the Watcher on the moon. (Instead of Sue Storm being on the spacecraft, as in the original Fantastic Four storyline, Spider-Man is aboard and Sue is monitoring the mission from Earth).

When the four return to Earth, having captured the Super Apes, they find that Sue has been captured by the Sub-Mariner, who was secretly being controlled by the Puppet Master. A mental projection of Namor tells where Sue is, and they go after her. After a brief fight with Namor, the Puppet Master becomes desperate to defeat this new team, and pushes the Sub-Mariner even harder in the fight, almost killing him. Always thinking two steps ahead, Richards realizes Namor is being controlled after a quip from Spider-Man. Breaking the spell, Namor communicates with a massive octopus and has it break through the underwater dome and crash into the Puppet Master's submarine.

While Spider-Man and the Human Torch fix the broken dome, Mister Fantastic and the Sub-Mariner allow Sue to decide who she will stay with. She chooses the Sub-Mariner, feeling as though she is no longer needed on the Fantastic Five, making it the Fantastic Four once again.

The others continued as the Fantastic Four, but Reed blamed Spider-Man for Sue’s leaving. A rift developed while the team battled foes such as Doctor Doom, Super-Skrull and Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android, eventually driving Spider-Man to leave the team in anger. Soon thereafter, Namor invited the team to celebrate the birth of his and Sue’s first child and a bitter Reed misinterpreted Namor’s actions. The two came to blows and Reed with Johnny Storm’s support soon framed Namor before the United Nations in an attempt to start a war with Atlantis. After Ben Grimm Thing revealed Reed’s treachery, Johnny and Reed decided to attack Atlantis themselves. While the Warlord Krang sacrificed his life defending Atlantis, Reed witnessed Sue’s devotion to Namor and came to his senses. He ended the attack and rededicated his life to bringing peace between the surface world and Namor’s Atlantis even as Sue gave birth to Namor’s first son, Leonard McKenzie.

Over time, Susan and Namor’s differences grew too great. She and Namor amicably split, he restored her air-breathing nature and Sue left her ex-husband and son to return to the surface world. The Fantastic Five later reunited with Reed and Sue finally marrying. When Susan became pregnant with their first child the rest of the team entered the Negative Zone and battled Annihilus for the Cosmic Control Rod, which they hoped, would ensure the child’s healthy birth. The mysterious Time Twisters (who sought to destroy Earth-772’s dimension to protect their own existences) brought Victor von Doom into the fray and Doom stole the Control Rod from both Annihilus and the Fantastic Five. Immortus, disguised as the Whisperer, intervened, convincing Doom to return the Rod to Reed for the good of their Universe. The remaining members of the Fantastic Five managed to return in time and Reed and Sue's first-born son was successfully delivered.

Fantastic Five appeared on one of the Watcher's holographic screen

The Fantastic Five appeared on one of the Watcher's holographic windows.[2]

Later, the entire team (minus the Invisible Woman) was murdered by Karn, who was hunting Spiders across the multiverse.[3]